Prayers
by Astellecia
Summary: In a crumbling faithless world, he gave her the strength to believe [50 sentence challenge]General Cross X Anita


D-Gray Man doesn't belong to be, because if it did, Anita would have died after she met Cross and not before…sighs Forgive the overtly long sentences; I had too much to write XD

D-Gray Man

Cross X Anita

Epsilon Set 1 sentence challenge

Prayers

#01 Motion

The theory of love is a little like that of science, because the same physical law of inertia applies, once Anita realizes that she has fallen hard and fast for the exorcist general, she finds that she cannot stop even though her head tells her to do otherwise.

#02 Cool

Allen cannot understand the indifference with which his master accepts the death of the dark-eyed, ebony-haired brothel mistress, but what he cannot possibly see, is that underneath that cool, calm exterior, Cross is breaking apart inside.

#03 Young

They had first met when her mother had died serving the Order, he had ruffled her ink black hair and told her that she was a very brave child, Cross was fifteen then, Anita was barely five.

#04 Last

This is where everything ends, in last words, last dreams, last hopes and last goodbyes, Anita stands on the deck of the ship as the world rains down around her in tears that she cannot shed and she remembers Cross for the last time.

#05 Wrong

Her mother had been a stern disciplinarian, and now that she is gone, Anita finds herself lost without a moral compass because how can it be, when her heart tells her that everything Cross does must be right?

#06 Gentle

Looking at Anita, one would think of spun glass, fragile and delicate, but Cross has found out, the hard way, that looks can be deceiving, because Anita is as aggressive as she is sly, and cunning is something she excels at if everyone thinks her gentle.

#07 One

For the longest time, she had been acutely aware that there was something special about him, this soldier of God; years later, as he kneels before her requesting her assistance on behalf of the Order, she is certain that this is the man who she will die for.

#08 Thousand

Every day since he left, Anita faithfully offers up a prayer and hopes that God will hear, but the ocean drowns her thousand wishes in its fathomless depths and she never sees him again.

#09 King

One of the things, that Mahoja had never really approved of was Anita taking after Cross as a role model, of all things, for it is much harder to serve a child who thinks herself a king rather than a queen.

#10 Learn

She bits her lip as his calloused hand covers hers, readjusting the uncertain grip on the katana, she hates the way he makes her feel so small and useless when he says "I can't always be here to take care of you"; she does not know this is his way of protecting her.

#11 Blur

When she was small, she saw the world in black and white, but after she met him, the colours started to seep in and the line between good and evil became smudged into obscurity as he taught her that sometimes, you have to look at things from the other side.

#12 Wait

Every time she tugs at his sleeve, telling him she wants to follow, his reply is always the same, not yet, not yet, but it never stops her from asking, one rejection after the next, just as how it never stops her from hoping.

#13 Change

Cross, for the life of him, cannot connect his memory of the dazed, frightened child he had unwillingly parted with five years ago to this demure girl with her painted face, but when she squeals and throws herself at him, he supposes they must be the same after all.

#14 Command

In the time following Cross's departure, Anita struggles to fill the big gaping hollow left behind by her mother's death, wondering if she will ever become a lady that will honor her exorcist knight.

#15 Hold

Her fingers unconsciously reach out to grip the black folds of his uniform as he bends over to kiss her forehead, and he stops, stone-still, fearful that she has awaken, but she slumbers on even as he pries her hand away, curling around the space he has vacated.

#16 Need

Anita has learned that there are many things that one can live without, reputation, dignity and honor because her service to the church demands that she surrenders all of these, yet at the same time, she has also learned, of the one thing she cannot live without.

#17 Vision

She was born into a world, riddled with fear and akuma and depthless despair, but he has shown her in that rough, careless way of his, of a world that she can scarcely imagine, where tomorrow is worth living for.

#18 Attention

He raises an eyebrow, scrutinizing the little girl before him in the geisha get-up meant for women years older and when Mahoja whispers that she had merely watched to catch his attention, Cross falls off his chair howling in laughter.

#19 Soul

Anita does not know how it happened, when it became so hard to live without him by her side and she muses that there are worse things than selling your soul to the devil, because falling in love binds you more tightly and painfully than the former ever could.

#20 Picture

The servants wonder why their mistress keeps no photos of her beloved General Cross and although time and distance erodes the features of his face from her memory, Anita cares little, for she loves the heart and not the man.

#21 Fool

She grabs his sleeve and mumbles, because she still young and full of pride, that he can always return here and when he gives her that cocky grin and replies " I know" she calls him an idiot, knowing that she is the greater fool for having fallen in love with one.

#22 Mad

This is madness, she knows, as she tells Mahoja to prepare her ship to chase a ghostly flicker of hope across an ocean, this is insanity and she is all too aware of it, but she supposes that Cross's existence in itself is a defiance of reason.

#23 Child

Anita cannot stop the tears that slide from her eyes as she watches this young exorcist with his faith and star-marked eye and she thinks that indeed, this is the hope that she has been taught to believe in and Cross has done an excellent job bringing it to life.

#24 Now

Cross has never been one to live in the past, he is a man of here and now, but he cannot help but wish, even a little, tinged with regret, for things that are but wind dust and ashes as he lays a rose on the empty grave.

#25 Shadow

When she was younger, she was scared of the shadows that lurked under her bed and behind the dark doors, older now; she realizes that the greatest fears, loss, despair, regret are equally intangible.

#26 Goodbye

They never say goodbye when they part, for Cross is a wild card and comes and goes as he pleases, and for Anita this is a charm of sorts, because it reassures her that he will always return.

#27 Hide

His hands are exceptionally gentle as he wipes the powder and rouge from her face with a wet towel, removing the layers of masks that she has played out to the world, and she smiles at him from underneath, wide-eyed and still so very much a child.

#28 Fortune

The one time Cross brings her to the spring festival, Anita pulls him to the fortune teller's table and asks for their fates to be read, Cross frowns and drags her away muttering about how it is the present that matters not the future.

#29 Safe

Anita eyes the silver rose hair pin that Cross has sent her, his way of letting her know he is alive, before she flings it away violently, not caring as it hits the far wall and falls to the floor, because what use is there, knowing that she is safe when he is not.

#30 Ghost

His fingers are coated in dust as he runs his hands along the surface of the vanity table, it has been years since the mistress last sat here brushing her hair, the room smells of old things and the lingering traces of perfume of incense and memories that he cannot forget.

#31 Book

In the rare instances when he stays on winter nights, they sit in the receiving room lit by the glowing embers of a fire, and he reads to her from the bible as she looks out the window, watching the snow fall and the starless night.

#32 Eye

Her hand quiver as she reaches out to touch the scar over his eye, but he grips her wrist before the fingers can make contact and the wordless stare she gives him makes the guilt so unbearable that he must look away.

#33 Never

She grips viciously onto the cloak of his uniform as he turns away saying that he does not love her enough, and that one day she will find someone who will be worth it, and she hisses at him that it will never happen because she will never want anyone else.

#34 Sing

During one of his visits, he brings her a gift; a carved wooden box smelling of fresh cedar and pine, laid with mother-of-pearl, and when she opens the lid, it plays an old lullaby her mother used to sing and Cross hums along with her.

#35 Sudden

Cross is a hairsbreadth away from severing Anita's pretty head from her neck when she ambushes him in the hallway, pulling him into a dark corner face buried in his shoulder, but decides that the reprimand can wait upon feeling her tears on his uniform.

#36 Stop

Rabi's grip on Miranda is tight as he looks on wordlessly at the young woman on the deck of the ship who closes her eyes as the rain spills down her face because he will never forget this single moment in his life.

#37 Time

Miranda's gift is a great one, Anita thinks, the ability to manipulate time at will, no matter that the effects are temporal, because there is no such thing as too much time to live, and she wishes that she could have seen him a final time.

#38 Wash

The morning after she receives news that Cross's ship had been destroyed by the Akuma, she walks, barefooted by the seaside, and watches the sunrise, waiting to see if the sea will wash up the last remnants of her hope.

#39 Torn

The paper lantern is a little old, dirtied and a little torn, but still beautiful nonetheless and strong, and Cross finds it ironically appropriate as he lights the candle and sends the lantern drifting into the sea for her, watching for a long time even after it is gone.

#40 History

Rinali cannot stop the tears from falling as her hand grasps the gold hair-tie; some faraway day, history books will write of the great sacrifice that was made here for the world, but she for her, it will be the day when dreams sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

#41 Power

She watches as the akuma submits to his will, trembling as its mind is warped, twisted and packed into the neat little box that Cross wishes it to be and thinks that it is a terrifying thing for a human, even him, to have so much control.

#42 Brother

Anita smiles a little as Rinali speaks of a brother who is waiting for her to return home, and as she smiles, she wonders maybe, just maybe if it is selfishness to be so willing to die, so that Cross can go home to nobody.

#43 God

He had asked her once, why she lived her life for a God who she could neither see, nor touch, nor feel, and she had replied with a blunt finality that he was there and asked him why he believed and he had answered with a nonchalant "why not?"

#44 Wall

The stone against her back is as warm as Cross's lips and his hair sweeps her face like the tendrils of leaves and vines brushing her skin, and here in this enclosed garden, surrounded by this temporary repose, she feels like nothing can touch her.

#45 Naked

Slender fingers brush lightly over the scars that mar pale skin as Anita examines Cross's sleeping frame, and every new wound that she finds twists her heart so painfully it is hard to breathe.

#46 Drive

Some days, she feels so tired of being alive, fighting this endless war with victory no where in sight, it would be so much easier to just drop dead and die but then there would be no place for him to return to, so she just picks herself up and carries on.

#47 Harm

The expression on Anita's face as he falls, bloody and bruised into her arms almost makes him want to laugh out loud; the string of curses that follow and a vow to grind the akuma who did this into dust makes him burst into laughter despite the pain in his side.

#48 Precious

Rinali looks up startled, as Anita presses one of the gold gilded hair-ties into the exorcist's hand, Cross had given it to her mother, and Anita wants this to live on even if she does not.

#49 Hunger

Her lips are pressed harshly against his, long nails pulling at the buttons on his coat; his hat has long since fallen to the ground, and the pins in her hair have come undone and he thinks he can understand her desperation because tomorrow, it might all end.

#50 Believe

In a crumbling, faithless world, he had given her the strength to believe in a God neither of them could see, and now, even facing the end of her journey, Anita can still smile and pray.


End file.
